As urbanization intensifies and public sector technology initiatives advance quickly, the once-futuristic promise of “smart cities” is coming to fruition.
Cities have always been “smart” to a degree, using technology to boost the productivity and efficiency of municipal services. But today, the proliferation of digital connectivity and big data explosion are creating new opportunities for beneficial smart-city projects across a range of sectors.
According to the UN, just over half of the world’s people live in urban areas; it is projected that two-thirds of the global population will be city dwellers by 2050, amounting to an urban influx of 2.5 billion people in the next few decades.
The speed and stability with which our cities optimize for efficiency, sustainability and safety will broadly impact quality of life issues around the world. Information and communications technology, including demographic analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT) and cyber-physical infrastructure, will obviously play a central role.
Unfortunately, connectivity and data factors also bring risks, including breaches of personal information, disruption to critical infrastructure and damaged public trust. While a failure of internal systems is a relatively private misfortune, a failure between interconnected sectors presents risks of a much larger magnitude.
The fallout of disruption can extend to cascading failures, wherein highly interconnected entities rapidly transmit adverse consequences to each other. It’s no easy task to invest in information security while creating a sustainable urban environment, but this is the challenge we face as digital connectivity and data-driven services become tightly woven into the fabric of smart cities.
As urbanization continues and smart cities evolve, it is becoming harder for organizations to find the optimum balance between commercial Risk and reward. Interconnection and interdependence intensify and enable new capabilities, and data proliferates, offering up important insights. It’s easy to identify the benefits, but many risks remain opaque.
Products and services are deployed with security that may be adequate in isolation, yet becomes lamentably weak when connected to other systems. This makes it difficult to measure and mitigate risks, such as contagion in financial markets, loss of public confidence or disruption to infrastructure.
Commercial and public organizations alike are faced with constant changes and a lack of clarity regarding information security standards, governance and legal responsibilities, leaving them unsure how to proceed with major development programs.
As ethical questions arise regarding smart cities, organizations must make new considerations. It may be legally permissible for organizations to collect personal data from smartphones that connect to free wireless access points, but have they considered the perception and repercussions of such activity if it were disclosed publicly?
For example, complex or lengthy end-user license agreements may allow an organization to sell highly sensitive medical data to third-parties, but has the individual truly given informed consent for these actions? This debate is moving steadily into the public policy arena, as the European Union (EU) is now scrutinizing the privacy practices of major technology companies such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google.
In the absence of even vaguely defined smart-city parameters, organizations must keep up-to-date on emerging privacy norms and remain wary of those who offer quick and easy solutions.
Risk managers must prepare in advance by regularly reviewing smart-city products and services, and promptly identify any changes to the organization’s network profile. They will have to monitor continuously for unidentified devices, sensors or other communications capability being added to their network without proper vetting and permissions.
